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Wetland Tour Continues . . .

If you drift through a small cut or trainasse or canal quietly, and look closely, you will see myriad smaller, less obvious specimens in our wetlands.

There are so many things to see, that you don’t know where to train your eyes . . on the water or in the trees or along the shore?

There, in that dead tree! Do you see it? A flash of yellowish green! If we’re quiet, we might get closer . . .

Look! There in that money tree! It’s another one! Are there any birders onboard?

Oh, so you want a closer look at those pink flowers? Which ones?

Are you talking about these wild morning glories? They’re common, I know, but these are just so HUGE, and the pink color is so deep. It’s hard not to pay attention to them, common or not.

Or do you mean these? What are they, you ask? They are called “marsh mallows”. Well, they are really what we call “salt marsh mallow”; however, we are not in a salt marsh at the moment. Confusing, I know, but ogranisms do have ways of adapting.

Don’t forget to let your eyes continue to scan the shoreline, the skyline, the treeline, and the lily pads on the water. There is another whole world of life going on down there . . .

I see at least four species of dragon fly. Do you see them all? And each is a different color . . . there’s a blue one, and a green one,

a red one,

and this beauty with spots on its wings! Did you know they lay their eggs on the lily pads?

Look! Over there in that tree! I saw a flash of yellow! Is it another one of those little yellow birds? Oh, it flew away!

Hey Captain? Could you take us closer to that weird-looking vine over there?

Sure! This one with the seed pods hanging down? This is called “deer peas”. It’s a wild version of a cultivar called cow peas. And yes, deer really do eat them. Have I seen deer out here? Yes I have, but they’re elusive. Oh, you want a closer look at the pea pods?

These are going to seed, as we say. They will soon pop open, dropping their seed to start new plants.

Remember to watch the shoreline . . . .

Aw, isn’t he cute? He’s about two years old, and evidently he’s had his Cheerios this morning and is trying to digest them! The young gators have much more camouflage on their skin. See the vivid stripes?

Hey! Captain! I see another one of those yellow birds . . just above us!

Wow! Look how beautiful! Does anyone know what bird this is?

As we round this corner on our way back in, look closely out across the lily pond, because you might see . . .

a family of gallinule having their breakfast. You really have to look closely for a splotch of red on the male’s face. See him? Sorry! The binoculars are a little fuzzy.

Well, that just about wraps up today’s tour. I hope you saw something new and exciting. Maybe you saw a bird to add to your “life list”. Maybe you’d never seen a red dragon fly before?

No matter how many times I come out in the wetlands of South Louisiana, it never gets old to me. Even though our freshwater and brackish marshes are constantly threatened by saltwater intrusion, the creatures here are just as tenacious as the bayou people–hanging on until the very last thread of hope is gone.

Thanks for coming with me today! It was great having you on the tooner. Please come back this winter and bring your friends for a totally different view of this vanishing wonder of the world!

Until next time!

BW

CONTEST UPDATE: These little birds have even my “in house bird expert” puzzled. I am sending her 6 zoom closeups of this bird in hopes that she can make a more positive ID tonight. If not, we will have to revamp the drawing, since we have been able to make an exact ID on this bird. I know what it SHOULD be in this area at this time of year, but the coloring is off. Also, it would have helped if the birds would have actually flown away, so I could have seen the “flash” marks, which often help make a positive ID. So now we wait for Kim to do her hard work! Thanks for your patience! BW (bird woman!!!)

CONTEST: Name that bird!!! Correct answers enter into random drawing . . . the old fashioned way this time . . . for a gift from Community Coffee! How about one of these?A signature coffee scoop? And those of you who have received gifts from Community can findyour gift item on their site and click on it and actually leave comments about the product. And if you would do that, it would make Scott at Community very happy and he will keep sending you gifts! And then we will ALL be happy!

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Comments

Wetland Tour Continues . . . — 25 Comments

Really nice back to back posts BW. As you know, I am a bird illiterate so I currently have no guess as to your pic. It does kind of look like that dead bird you found at the camp the other day however. Anyway, I thought I would try to take this opportunity to try to be the first commentor even though I am not officially entering myself in the contest. I’ve had a couple of lucky contest results so I’ll let some other deserving reader try their shot at that groovy cool scoop.

It’s a Yellow bird, high up in a “bayou” tree. Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me…OK, I know songs not birds. I hope there is SOMEONE reading this who remembers the actual Yellow Bird song. They can sing my answer and have it stuck in their head too! LOL!

Now, Tar Baby, calm down. Ain’t nobody gonna make you stop using yo favrit words. Where I grew up, these were not called mosquito hawks, sorry. But I will be doing a post about that if I can better photos as I go along!!!!

The coffee mug came the other day with the surprise of 2 bags of coffee, how nice! The mug is even better “in person” than online. Thanks Community Coffee!!! Really looking forward to getting back down south in Nov. for another mission trip, meeting new people and all that fun southern stuff.
Thanks again,
Julie S, Michigan

Re: Tiny Yellow Bird
BW, we are not birders. True story. A few years ago a boat stopped at the camp with four people. They all quickly got out, ignored us, and whispering to each other, walk/ran in a crouching position to the back of the camp. There in our stacked up crab traps was a tiny yellow bird. Later when the fun was over, they told us it was called a Yellow Pop. Less common is the Blue Pop which we have since seen but only once.

Don’t know if this means anything to you bird folk but that’s ma story!

We got back home Sunday from four days out there. There is not as much activity going on so I guess they are winding down on the project. One of the supers told us they would be done in October. The water is so fresh that we have tons of water lillies in the Raccourci. We’ve been unable to run the net because of them. Please, save those seeds, BW! The lady up the street cut all of her trees down before I could snitch any seed pods. We’ll connect one of these days.

Hi Wendy!
Thanks for your comments on my crocheting! I happened upon your blog through someone else’s blog (don’t remember whose, lol) and you have a lot of things on your blog that I really enjoy. We like to fish and hunt, are country at heart even though we live in the city now, and I just enjoy lots of what you write about. Come visit again anytime!
Susie